The sanctity of life is under attack.

This truth is evident not only in the United States, where thousands of unique, unborn individuals are slaughtered each day, but elsewhere around the globe.

This week in Ireland, there is a referendum vote on the 8th Amendment of the Irish Constitution. That portion of the document was amended in 1983 with a section that recognized the equal right to life of both the unborn child and the mother.

You must remember that the USA, the “land of the free”, has some of the most permissive abortion laws on the planet, allowing for destruction of unborn life for any reason and well into pregnancy. Only eighteen states restrict abortion at 20 weeks. Still, pro-abort feminists (there is rarely any other kind of feminist) decry their supposed oppression and insist that “reproductive rights” are horribly restricted.

A similar, anti-life attitude is permeating the Emerald Isle.

The specific section in the Constitution of Ireland that is up for a vote is Section 3 of Article 40, and it reads as follows:

3° The State acknowledges the right to life of the unborn and, with due regard to the equal right to life of the mother, guarantees in its laws to respect, and, as far as practicable, by its laws to defend and vindicate that right.

A campaign to repeal the 8th Amendment is pushing for removal of this “archaic” and “dangerous” law. They view unborn life as neither worthy of protection nor fully human. An op-ed in Tuesday’s Irish Times, written by Nick Breen – a doctor – shows just how far this anti-life mentality has spread.

You don’t have to agree with abortion to vote “Yes” to repeal the 8th.

In order to bestow these rights on a foetus you have to take autonomy away from that woman. What this actually leads to is that the “unborn” gains more rights than the woman who’s carrying it.

This is a terrible injustice.

There is no definition of what unborn means. A single-cell organism, a zygote, immediately after fertilization? It may contain all the essential factors for development, but these factors exist as an encoded set of instructions localized in the genes of chromosomes. These genes aren’t even activated at conception.

This is discrimination at the highest level. Dr. Breen has no problem saying that a new human life, which contains all of the codes necessary for developing a one-of-a-kind individual, should not be granted personhood and should be marked for destruction simply because it exists.

That is barbaric. However, you must remember that the United States is well past this level of depravity. Ireland would just be catching up in this bloodthirsty race.

Breen’s statement is a popular one among the pro-aborts in any nation. They view life inside the womb with disdain. It doesn’t look like us and can’t act like us, yet, so why protect it? If you take this argument to its logical conclusion, then why not destroy any other human life that doesn’t meet these qualifications? A baby is not a toddler and cannot function in a similar way. A child is not a teenager with increased knowledge and skill. A teenager has not the maturity, both physically and mentally, of an adult. Finally, an elderly individual, wise in years but failing in form, is in a different category entirely. Why, it’s almost as if life is a continuous process of growth set in stone at conception by that stubborn DNA?!

To say a life at any stage is not worth that of another, more advanced human being, is to diminish us all. 

On Friday, May 25th, the people of Ireland will declare via vote whether they believe all individuals are worth the same or not. That is the black and white of it.

This is so very disturbing on its own but especially so since the Republic of Ireland has protected unborn life for decades. That protection is becoming the exception and not the rule in countries around the world.

We who passionately defend the worth of the unborn human should be aware of these developments and vocal in our protests. Unlike our opponents who view life as worth more depending on how much one can function/contribute to society, we see each conceived life the same as our own. Thus, our feelings about unborn Irish babies should look no different than unborn Americans, or any other human on the planet.

Though modern-day society resists, the truth is that personhood is bestowed by our Creator, not by men. It is inherent.

In March, I joined with other Americans in adding my name to this open letter supporting the continued protection of unborn life through the 8th Amendment. We should all be so united.

In a few short days, we’ll see whether Irish men and women decide to stand up for the equal right to life for the unborn or cower to societal demands that replace the truth with nothing but convenient barbarism.

If they do, the Republic of Ireland, and the world, will grow even darker.

The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent those of any other individual or entity. Follow Kimberly Ross on Twitter: @southernkeeks.